The present invention relates to a product evaluation system and a product evaluation method and in particular to a product evaluation system and a product evaluation method that acquires characteristics of products and then evaluates the authenticity of the product and estimates its value. Hereafter, the word “Evaluation” shall mean “Authentication” or “Value Estimation” or a combination of the both.
In recent years, due to the growth of the recycling and secondary distribution markets for goods, used brand name products and jewelry are being widely distributed and counterfeit products are also often distributed to such markets. In particular, the increasing popularity of secondary market distribution platforms on the Internet in recent years has resulted in a significant increase in the illegal distribution of counterfeit products. As a result, there is a rising need to authenticate and estimate the value of brand name products, jewelry, and the like.
However, over the years and up until now, there have not been significant changes to evaluation methods of brand name products, jewelry, and the like. Traditionally, the evaluation of authenticity and value of products has required involvement of human beings with special expertise, and such evaluation was done by way of utilizing the five senses. Under such circumstances, it is difficult for humans who do not have special expertise to evaluate products, making it necessary to obtain significant human resources with such expertise in order to perform evaluation operations of large quantities of products. In addition, an evaluation method that depends on the five human senses requires a long time for each product and limits the number of products that can be evaluated by one person per day. Furthermore, since the evaluation depends on the special expertise and experience of an individual person, there is a possibility that the results of evaluation will vary and mistakes occur depending on the person performing the evaluation.
Therefore, various technologies have been proposed to date to attach an information storage medium, on which specific information is recorded, to the main body, packing material, or the like of products beforehand during the manufacturing stage of the products and then determine the authenticity by reading and verifying this information. For example, a technology is known consisting of attaching a wireless tag, whereon information used to identify the product is stored, to the product or the packing box of the product, reading data from the wireless tag, and, if the correct information on the manufacturer or the distributor of the product is recognized, determining the product to be the genuine product. A technology is also known that further improves the security for preventing counterfeiting by encryption processing the data stored in the wireless tag (for an example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 2005-216316).
However, the authentication technology described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 2005-216316 or other technology that embeds an IC chip or marker to perform the authentication requires an information storage medium to be embedded or attached to the main body, packing materials, or the like, of the products beforehand during the manufacturing stage or packaging stage. Accordingly, these methods and technologies allow for authentication of only those products with such tags or markers attached and do not solve the problem of the need to authenticate large amounts of already existing products to which such tags or markers are attached. Furthermore, only people with special equipment which is capable of reading and confirming the information attached to products can perform the authentication of the products. Even further, each manufacture or distributor needs to attach a tag, marker, or the like to all the products to evaluate the products, thereby increasing manufacturing processes and man-hours.
In addition, technology that utilizes an information storage medium can only determine authenticity of products, but can not automatically evaluate the value of products, which may vary depending on changes in conditions of the products as seen in second hand goods, and other characteristics.